FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's application to trademark the term "Tom Terrific" has been refused by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Brady, who said his goal was to ensure people didn't refer to him by that nickname, created a stir among New York Mets fans because "Tom Terrific" is the nickname of Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver. As it turns out, Brady's application for the trademark was officially refused by the USPTO on Thursday because "the applied-for mark consists of or includes matter which may falsely suggest a connection with Tom Seaver."

Brady has up to six months to respond to the rejection. If there is no response in that time period, the request for the trademark will be abandoned.

In June, Brady had expressed regret for applying for the trademark.

"It's unfortunate," he said. "I was actually trying to do something because I didn't like the nickname and I wanted to make sure no one used it, because some people wanted to use it. I was trying to keep people from using it, and then it got spun around to something different than what it is. Good lesson learned, and I'll try to do things a little different in the future ...

"It wasn't something I was trying to do out of any disrespect or ill manner or anything like that."